Review

Review Summary: Raw, fast and brutal, Death's debut is only the beautiful beginning of a perfect discography.

THE STORY OF DEATH, EPISODE I/VII - SCREAM BLOODY GORE:

There is only a very limited number of bands whose debuts are better than their later albums. I could arguably fit Dio, Testament and Angel Witch into this category, bands with debuts that are so incredible, that none of their future works could be even compared to it.
Death is not one of these bands. Don’t get me wrong, Scream Bloody Gore is one of my favorite albums of all time, but, truth must be told, it falls in comparison to the band's last four albums. Still, Scream is without doubt an amazing, highly influential effort, which features some of the catchiest Death Metal of all time.
Scream Bloody Gore was the album that started it all. [Some may argue that Possessed was the first Death Metal band, because Seven Churches, their debut, was released before Scream Bloody Gore, but let's not forget that Death wrote an honorable number of demo tapes before it, and that both of the bands started performing about the same time]. Never before there was such bloody, horrific lyrical themes. Never before there was such brutal vocal performance.

Listening to the first song, Infernal Death, you can already know what to expect from this album: an extremely fast, brutal and raw Death Metal. By listening to the second track, you will fully absorb the essence of the album, and there is no turning back; you are completely hooked. Zombie Ritual, like most of the songs in the album, starts with an epic harmonic intro, which builds into a complete Thrash-fest accompanied by Chuck Schuldiner's deep screams and horror-movie based lyrics. It is, in fact, extremely catchy, and you would undoubtedly have the tune stuck in your head for the next few days, probably alongside to other catchy pieces here, such as Beyond The Unholy Grave and Evil Dead, to name a few.
The album continues with the exact same attitude throughout all 12 tracks. Some may call it repetitive and hate it; I call it consistent and love it. At the end of the day it’s a catchy, raw and fast masterpiece, regardless of how progressed and perfect late Death albums were. In addition, it will be quite interesting for any Death Metal fan to check this out, just to discover where it all begun, and how it used to be.

Death released Scream after four long years of existence, and by the time they set down to record the album, they had about 30 songs written. Chuck, seemingly, chose ten of the tracks he wrote (Beyond The Unholy Grave and Land Of No Return wasn’t originally on the cassette version, but they were released with the CD later the same year), and added them together. For those of you who seek for more Scream Bloody Gore styled Death songs, many great ones can be found on the early demos the band put out, e.g. Death By Metal, Infernal Death.

Death is one of the greatest Death Metal bands of all time, if not the greatest. Its debut, Scream Bloody Gore, is an essential, highly-influential masterpiece. I strongly recommend it to anyone who is into Death Metal. For the few of you that hadn’t got to check out Death Metal yet, this is probably a great place to start, seeing as the music is fairly similar to Thrash Metal. The Album will slowly sooth you in and will eventually make you the badass hardcore DM fan you all wish to be.

Scream Bloody Gore was released in May 25, 1987. The record label is Combat Records and it is 41:59 minutes long.

Personnel:

All songs written by Chuck Schuldiner.
Chuck Schuldiner - bass, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals
Chris Reifert - drums
Edward Repka - design, illustrations
Randy Burns - percussion, producer
John Hand - credited on album as rhythm guitar but did not actually play on album (or during any live performances)

"There is only a very limited number of bands whose debuts are better than their later albums. I could arguably fit Dio, Testament and Angel Witch into this category, bands with debuts that are so incredible, that none of their future works could be even compared to it.

Death is not one of these bands."

true imo. they progressed to improve upon this foundation that they laid. within Death's discog this is my least favorite, but it still rules and was foundational for dm. plus it's just cool to think about how great this album is, and then remember that they had 6 albums after it that ruled even more.